TENNESSEE -- University of Tennessee officials filed documents in federal court in September in an attempt to avoid the release of records the university claims are private and would cost thousands of dollars to assemble.

The ESPN television network subpoenaed the records, claiming they are required for the network's defense against a defamation suit filed by Tennessee football player Reggie Ridley and Victoria Gray, a former athletics department tutor.

Ridley and Gray filed their separate federal suits, each asking $2 million in damages, last year after the network alleged massive academic fraud by the school

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congress passed a bill in December requiring many elementary and secondary schools and public libraries receiving federal technology funds to install Internet filters on their computers.

The Children's Internet Protection Act, introduced in the Senate by Sens.

NEVADA -- The University and Community Colleges System of Nevada in November asked the state supreme court to overturn a lower court's ruling forcing the system to conduct a public search for a new president for the Community College of Southern Nevada

The editor of a student newspaper who exposed the censorship of a student newspaper at a neighboring high school and a college newspaper that uncovered the details of a lavish contract given to their former university president received the 2000 Scholastic Press Freedom Award.

Nick Edwards, a former editor of the Stinger at Camarillo High School in Camarillo, Calif., and the staff of the Muleskinner, the student newspaper at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg received the awards in November.

The award, sponsored by the Student Press Law Center and the National Scholastic Press Association/Associated Collegiate Press, is given each year to a high school and a college student journalist or student news medium that has demonstrated outstanding support for the free press rights of students.

Edwards

WISCONSIN -- The September revelation that University of Wisconsin officials had altered the cover photo of the school's 2001-02 undergraduate application brochure prompted a state legislator to introduce a bill designed to block such practices, a move some say would unnecessarily limit the freedom of photojournalists.

State Rep.

OHIO -- Clayton Telles let his creative juices flow over the World Wide Web, but their current landed him in the principal's office and, after being suspended, at home for a school-sponsored vacation.

The senior at Otsego High School in Otsego created a Web site, OtsegoSucks.com, from his home computer in October.

ILLINOIS -- A federal appellate court said in August that it will allow two state newspapers to argue that a settlement between Lake Land College and one of its former vice presidents should not be sealed.

One college president said he gave the order to confiscate student newspapers because of factual errors and fear of copyright infringement.

Ian Lake called his principal "the town drunk." Ryan Lathouwers designed a Web site where users made anonymous submissions ridiculing a professor's sexual orientation.

Brian Condradt said 11 of his teachers worshipped Satan, while Justin Swidler likened his math teacher to Adolf Hitler.

And Joey Harrison and eight of his friends published a parody paper threatening to rape "the most fucked up teacher" on campus.

The common thread: They all ended up in court, facing charges of libel and invasion of privacy by those from whom they are supposed to learn. One case was dismissed.

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